“I never lost a game. I just ran out of time.”
Michael Jordan
You’re running out of time to get the windows washed before winter. Running out of time to bring in the plants you plan to winter over. Runing out of time to put away the lawn furniture. And that’s just a start of timely things that have a short shelf life.
Time issues will hit us upside the head again in a few weeks when the clocks change. It’s high time the legislators kept their promises to fix the frustration we all feel with that mess, but I have given up hope that they will ever do so. If they can’t agree on a fairly minor issue like that, we can probably assume that a lot of the big problems will get shoved aside too.
If you’re like me, there is hardly a day that doesn’t end with a list of things you meant to do and ran out of time for. I try to avoid guilt by saying, “There’s always tomorrow.” But sometimes we run out of tomorrows too. The person whom you meant to call dies suddenly. The issue you put off talking to your spouse about no longer matters because the other person made a decision and moved on. The job opening you heard about got filled. Trips you planned to take in retirement won’t happen because health issues prevent it now.
Bruce’s family had a rountuit on the wall. The idea was that whatever was on the docket, someone would eventually get around to it. I can’t testify to whether or not that worked.
Some of us aren’t good at prioritizing. I practice that skill by putting the grocery list in some semblance of how things are placed in the store. But about the time I think I’m ahead, the store changes where things are displayed. Appointment reminders are put on the calendar, and cards with that information are clipped on the fridge in the right order. Trouble is, sometimes one of us forgets to put down the time on the calendar.
We’re all going to get up in the morning with more plans than we can realistically accomplish in a day. Maybe it’s best to just set one important goal. We can always add onto the list when that one gets done. But do take a moment to rejoice in the day, and be grateful. That’s probably the most important plan you can make.
Meet me here next week and meanwhile do your best. Somebody might like it.